Conventionally, combination scales are structurally characterized as described below. A dispersing feeder receives articles to be weighed and feeds them into a plurality of linear feeders around the dispersing feeder. The linear feeders deliver the received articles outwardly into a plurality of feeding hoppers. The feeding hoppers temporarily store therein the articles to be weighed and open their discharge gates to feed the articles into a plurality of weighing hoppers disposed below the feeding hoppers.
A combination scale weighs the articles in the weighing hoppers and executes combinatorial computations in which weight values of the articles are variously combined to select an optimal quantity combination of weigh hoppers having a combinational weight, weights of the combined articles in total, equal to or most approximate to a target combinational weight from among these combinations. Then, the combination scale discharges the weighed articles from the optimal quantity combination of weighing hoppers selected by the combinatorial computations (for example, refer to the patent literature 1).